Tuesday, August 3, 2010

I haven't watched Eureka regularly since the first season, but I watch episodes here and there, mostly season premieres and finales, and I read enough about the show, so I know what's going on. After the gamechanging season premiere of Eureka (I was totally shocked how everything didn't revert back to normal in the end through the usual deus ex machina.), I was confused on how Fargo would be integrated into the episode since he's supposed to be the badass boss of GD. Largely, though, the writers avoided confronting the issue, a good choice considering all the complications that could stem from exploration in that direction. However, Claudia visiting Eureka in this Friday's episode should prove more of a challenge to the writers.

Fargo visits the Warehouse, previously thought to be an internet rumor, to update the computer system. Inevitably, it triggers the failsafe created by Hugo Miller and bad things keep happening. While Pete and Myka go off to find Miller, Hugo1, the system behind the failsafe, decides to solve the Warehouse problem--the agents. It lowers the temperature and sends out Fargo's spider robots to clean up, leaving those inside trapped and in harm's way.

Meanwhile, Pete and Myka find Miller and he's as crazy as a bat, spouting off nonsense. The manage to bring him back to the Warehouse. The resolution of the episode is really cool. Artie realizes that Hugo1 is not just a computer--it's half of the real Hugo's brain. The solution is inadvertently discovered by Fargo who grabs Max Wertheimer’s Zoetrope off the shelves. It turns out to be the original artifact which put half of Hugo into the computer and the process is reversible, forming an intelligent, cogent Hugo Miller who's aged a few years.

Sadly, Claudia gets her heart broken by Todd at the end of the episode. And it's hard to blame Todd either when Claudia is always on secret IRS business, although he may have another purpose which has yet to be revealed. As for the thing between Claudia and Fargo, I don't see how it'd work if they're on separate shows.

"13.1" was my favorite episode of the season for the tight plot and charming moments in the Warehouse which didn't get out of hand. I particularly liked the use of lightsabers to destroy the spiders and of course Rene Auberjonois of DS9 who was hilarious throughout the episode.